All pages in category ‘Event’

Wednesday, June 6, 2018 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Corwin Pavilion Invitation & Agenda Speakers Posters The annual spatial@ucsb.local2018 Poster and Plenary Session was held on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at Corwin Pavilion, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. This year’s theme for the event was Improving Information Accuracy for Extreme Events. Keynotes were delivered by Jessica White (Direct Relief International), Chris Renschler (Dept. of Geography, University at Buffalo), and Brian Heath (Ventura County Fire Department). Representatives from the private sector and industry and campus-wide academics in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and engineering programs were invited to showcase how spatial thinking facilitates research and creativity. A total of 53 posters were submitted for viewing. See agenda, speaker bios and abstracts, and a sampling of posters...

On Wednesday, May 30, from 12:00–1:00 pm please join us for the next Spatial Technology Lunch in the Center for Spatial Studies (Phelps Hall 3512). This semi-regular series, hosted by spatial@ucsb, aims to promote discussion and interaction within the university’s spatial technology community. Please RSVP to Crystal Bae (cbae@spatial.ucsb.edu) by Monday, May 28. Pizza and drinks will be provided. Integrating heterogeneous, dynamic adaptation behaviour in drought risk modelling Marthe Wens Abstract: Droughts are a prevalent and costly hazard impacting urban, agricultural, and natural systems. Increasing climate variability is expected to exacerbate drought conditions in many parts of the world while evolving socio-economic conditions and adaptation strategies influence both short and long term risk to ecosystems, economies, and human health. Since adaptation strategies evolve over time, explicitly modeling these dynamics is important for understanding future risk. In this talk I will advocate extending the traditional drought-risk framework to better include the bilateral relationship between human and physical systems. The use of agent-based modeling technique to simulate the co-evolution of future drought hazard, exposure, vulnerability and heterogeneous, individual adaptation decisions, is showcased using a case study in Kitui, rural East Kenya. Marthe Wens is currently a PhD Student in the Department of Water and Climate Risk Institute for Environmental Studies at the Instituut voor Milieuvraagstukken...

On Tuesday, May 22, from 12:00–1:00 pm please join us for the next Spatial Technology Lunch in the Center for Spatial Studies (Phelps Hall 3512). This semi-regular series, hosted by spatial@ucsb, aims to promote discussion and interaction within the university’s spatial technology community. Please RSVP to Crystal Bae (cbae@spatial.ucsb.edu) by Sunday, May 20. Pizza and drinks will be provided. How well can a $750 DIY LiDAR scanner scan? Jorge Chen Abstract: Laser scanners provide a fast, convenient, and accurate way to take distance measurements of the surrounding environment. They operate by calculating the time it takes for a light beam to travel to a distant object and back using a process called light detection and ranging, or LiDAR, that, when repeated numerous times, forms a “point cloud” of (x,y,z) coordinates. Until very recently, only large enterprise users with big budgets could afford this type of technology, with the cost of most LiDAR scanners running well over $100K. However, the trickling down of LiDAR to consumer products has resulted in a new class of relatively cheap sensors that can now be found in robotic vacuum cleaners, drones, autonomous vehicles, and maybe even in upcoming smartphones. This presentation looks at the performance of the Scanse 3D panoramic LiDAR scanner, one of the first panoramic scanners designed for consumer use. At an incredible price of $750, this camera-sized do-it-yourself scanner uses a $150 LiDAR sensor attached to two orthogonally rotating servos that are controlled by open source software on a Raspberry Pi — all powered by an off-the-shelf cell phone charger. Performance assessment involved comparing measurements of a conference room taken with the Scanse 3D and a professional Trimble scanner. Results showed the Scanse consistently overestimated room dimensions by 15 cm, although at the local level of a flat surface it showed sub-centimeter accuracy, with high standard deviation and sub-centimeter precision. This latter result indicated systematic drift, which can be seen in a plot of the point cloud. Perhaps more interesting than the results, though, were the challenges faced in aligning the noisy and wavy Scanse data with the highly accurate and precise Trimble data. These were addressed using extended Gaussian image analysis, histogram analysis, and the iterative closest point process, all of which will be covered during the presentation. Jorge Chen is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography at...

spatial@ucsb.local2018 main page Can Navigation Ability Be Improved? Can Navigation Ability Be Improved? Chuanxiuyue (Carol) He and Mary Hegarty Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara Growth (versus fixed) mindset in navigation ability refers to a person’s implicit theory that their navigation ability can (or cannot) be improved. Previous studies have shown that people with growth mindset in general are more likely to approach challenges and value efforts so that they are more likely to have better achievements (Dweck, 1998; Dweck, 2006). This study aims to investigate the relations between the mindset in navigation ability, self-reported sense of direction, everyday navigation behaviors, and people’s actual navigation abilities, including perspective-taking, constructing survey knowledge (estimating directions to destinations), and navigation efficiency (finding shortcut to navigate). Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Map Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Map Benchmark Maps Effects of Climate Change and Urbanization on Joshua Trees Effects of Climate Change and Urbanization on Joshua Trees Shelly Hill, Moriah Mason, and Christine Pang Yucca brevifolia, more commonly known as the Joshua tree, is a giant yucca endemic to the desert grasslands and shrublands of the Mojave Desert. This species is an important source of food and habitat for small mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and spiders. However, the Joshua tree is restricted to locations with cold winters, hot summers, and little precipitation, resulting in a small inhabited range. This limited habitat distribution is likely to be affected by factors such as urbanization and climate change. With changes in the Joshua tree’s distribution, there will be subsequent effects on the many organisms that depend on Yucca brevifolia as well. With these factors in mind, we hope to visually quantify the negative impacts the factors of urbanization and climate change will have on the this species. Expanding UCSB Sustainability's Urban Orchard Program Expanding UCSB Sustainability’s Urban Orchard Program Thomas Crimmel, Adriana Ocasio, Yixue Meng, Thomas Smith The University of California’s Food Access and Security survey found that nineteen percent of the UC community meets the USDA’s definitions of “very low” food security while twenty-three percent met the definition for “low” food security (Martinez et al. 2016). UCSB Sustainability has combined this need with recent funding towards urban agriculture to launch an on campus urban orchard project that supplies AS Food Bank with fresh produce to give back to the students. Seven citrus trees have already been successfully potted in Storke Plaza. In working to better understand where to expand the Urban Orchard project, our team is finding a way to make this process more expedient and the project more successful. In comparing and weighting data covering restricted areas, solar insolation, potable water accessibility, and proximity to other sites, geospatial...

On Tuesday, May 15, 2018 The UCSB brown-bag forum on spatial thinking presents The Accidental Digital Humanist: The Bodies and Structures Project and the Challenge of Spatial Humanities Kate McDonald Department of History University of California, Santa Barbara 12:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, 2018 | 3512 Phelps Hall (map) Flyer Abstract: Kate McDonald is excited to share a digital spatial history project, Bodies and Structures: Deep-Mapping the Spaces of Japanese History, which she is currently developing with her colleague David Ambaras (History, NC State). Bodies and Structures is a platform for researching and teaching the spatial histories of Japan, its empire, and the larger worlds of which they were a part. It begins from the premise that space and place are fundamental to humanistic inquiry. It unfolds into a method of writing spatial histories that reveal the multiple topologies of historical experience rather than a chronology of spatial thought or territorial transformation. The talk will introduce the site and the intellectual stakes of the project. In particular, she will focus on two themes: (a) how she started with a plan to write a new kind of spatial history and ended up knee-deep in the digital humanities; and (b) why, after two years into the project, she argues that the spatial humanities need a digital platform like Bodies and Structures. There will be time to explore and discuss the site — please bring your laptop in addition to your lunch! Bio: Kate McDonald is Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan (University of California Press, 2017) and co-director of the Bodies and Structures: Deep-Mapping the Spaces of Japanese History project. — The objectives of the ThinkSpatial brown-bag presentations are to exchange ideas about spatial perspectives in research and teaching, to broaden communication and cooperation across disciplines among faculty and graduate students, and to encourage the sharing of tools and concepts. Please contact Werner Kuhn (kuhn@ucsb.edu) to review and schedule possible discussion topics or presentations that share your disciplinary interest in spatial thinking. Follow spatial@ucsb on Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Google...

On Monday, April 30, from 12:00–1:00 pm please join us for the next Spatial Technology Lunch in the Center for Spatial Studies (Phelps Hall 3512). This semi-regular series, hosted by spatial@ucsb, aims to promote discussion and interaction within the university’s spatial technology community. Please RSVP to Crystal Bae (cbae@spatial.ucsb.edu) by Saturday, April 28. Pizza and drinks will be provided. Experimental VR Research on Spatial Cognition in Chinese Traditional Villages Sinan Yuan Associate Prof. Department of Architecture Tianjin University, Tianjin, China Abstract: By using VR technology, the researcher establishes an experiment platform to analyze the spatial cognition process of people when they are wandering in the traditional Chinese villages. Xiamei and Chengcun, two traditional villages in northern Fujian province, were chosen as the samples in the experiment. The data of movements, head directions of the subjects in the experiment were collected as well as the corresponding subjective feedbacks during the experiment. Through data visualization and analysis, the research reveals the characteristics of the cognition and behavior of the participants when experiencing a complex space such as the traditional villages. Sinan Yuan is currently a visiting scholar at UCSB from Tianjin University in...